


I Got My Ion You

by youngavengerfeels



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Captain America Steve Rogers/Modern Bucky Barnes, First Meetings, Fluff without Plot, M/M, Meet-Cute
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:21:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23922256
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youngavengerfeels/pseuds/youngavengerfeels
Summary: Bucky does science outreach events every Tuesday at the local Children's Hospital.  One week the hospital has a very special guest visiting.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Comments: 16
Kudos: 178





	I Got My Ion You

**Author's Note:**

> I'm back! Quarantine has me itching to write again. I thought I would start off with some fluff without plot to ease myself back into the writing habit, so please enjoy some soft boys. This is set after The Avengers.

Every Tuesday for the last two years Bucky had been going to the Brooklyn Children’s Hospital to do outreach programming for the New York Science Center. It was one of Bucky’s favorite outreach events. Even though the kids had so much stuff going on in their lives, like sickness and missing school, the kids still always lit up when Bucky got them started on a science experiment. He wasn’t surprised at all by that, children were naturally curious and he was just there to give that curiosity a focus. But still knowing that he made their time in the hospital even a little bit easier made him feel good.

Normally Bucky's Tuesday morning time slot was reserved just for the Science Center programming. The administrative staff didn't want to double book the time, that way the kids wouldn't have to choose one activity over the other. So it was odd that someone was already in the meeting room that Bucky used for his demos when he arrive. 

Up at the front of the room, swarmed by little humans, was Captain America. Bucky had to do a double take, because that was the best cosplay he had ever seen. The man had the mask on, but his body looked just like Cap’s, which meant the guy must live in the gym to maintain that. He knew the hospital loved to have cosplayers come in to give the kids a magic moment with their favorite heroes or movie characters, so it wasn't weird to have a Captain America there. Ever since the whole Battle of New York the world had been obsessed with the Avengers. Bucky had never seen one though and now that he had, it was super sweet. The kids were so enamored with the guy. Bucky himself couldn’t help but let himself look over the guy with a hungry gaze. He was only human and the guy was attractive.

Bucky didn’t have time to just ogle handsome men, so she moved to the front of the room to start setting up for his demo. It seemed Captain America was finishing up anyway. Kate, his favorite nurse, came up to greet him.

“Hey Kate, who’s that?” Bucky asked, nodding his head in the direction of the cosplayer. Kate gave him a weird look.

“Captain America! Isn’t it great? He volunteered to come in and give a little speech for the kids then do some meet and greets. It was so nice of him,” Kate said, helping Bucky unload the dinosaur fossils he had brought to show the kids. Bucky thought it was a little weird that she didn't like give a real name for the cosplayer, but maybe that was a thing for cosplayers, to not give out their real names. It probably helped them stay in character.

The hospital staff seemed to quell the mob of children surrounding the probably overwhelmed Captain America. Bucky loved those children dearly but they were heathens and he wouldn't wish them on anyone. The guy made his way over to Bucky who was not going to pass up the opportunity to ogle a gorgeous man like that up close.

“Seems like it's fossil day. I brought the dinosaurs and you’re a fossil yourself,” Bucky said with a little laugh. The guy gave Bucky a weird look but chuckled a little.

“Yeah, I am pretty ancient,” He said.

“Cap predates the pop tab on soda cans so yeah, that is pretty old,” Bucky said. He pulled out the dinosaur eggs he had made for the kids to excavate. There was a little dinosaur toy in every egg for the kids to identify and take with them. It was still but it was fun to watch the kids try to figure out what dinosaur they got and get excited about it.

“What are you doing?” The guy asked, appearing to be genuinely interested. Bucky was happy to oblige.

“I am the outreach specialist for the Brooklyn Science Center. I come every week to present a science lesson to the kids. For a lot of the kids they are in and out of school which makes them fall behind a lot of the time. I provide a fun way for the kids to engage with science while they are missing school,” Bucky explained getting a little passionate about it.

He couldn’t help it though, he really loved his job. He got to geek out about science every day and help kids discover their own love of science. It was his dream job. Little kid Bucky who had read science fiction novels all night would be so happy to see him now. Although little kid Bucky would also be sad that there still weren’t flying cars, but to be fair adult Bucky was also still upset about that. Give us flying cars already Stark Industries.

“That is really amazing,” The guys said, looking generally impressed. “I was sick so much growing up I missed out on a lot of school too. I really wish I had someone like you to help,” Cap said earnestly. Before Bucky could respond a nurse ushered Cap to follow her to make some rounds around to meet someone to bed bound kids. He gave Bucky a dashing smile and wave before he left though that did weird things to Bucky consider he had just met the guy.

After Bucky’s demo he did some rounds himself to try and make sure that no one who wanted the chance to learn was denied the opportunity. It was a hassle to roll around his supplies, but worth it to see the kids smile. Even though Bucky loved the experience spending all day in the hospital was draining. By the end of the day Bucky was ready to high tail it out of there, he just needed the dang elevator to arrive faster.

The elevator opened up, finally, and there was the Captain America cosplayer. This time he wasn't wearing the mask so Bucky was able to get a good look at his face. “I’ll wait for the next one,” Bucky said with a wave. He had a lot of bins of supplies with him. That combined with the behemoth of a man that was the cosplayer, the elevator would be pretty cramped.

“We’ll fit,” the man said with a smile holding the elevator door. Well who was Bucky to argue with a beautiful man? It was a tight fit but they managed, it wasn’t a hardship to stand a little closer to the man than would normally be socially acceptable.

Without the mask on, Bucky was able to get a good look at the guy’s face and if Bucky thought the guy’s body was good, it was nothing compared to how handsome his face was. It was kind of unfair, only movie stars should have faces that are that pretty, not random cosplayers. Ok, maybe that was just Bucky being a little bitter, but sue him.

“That is a super realistic costume. Did you make it yourself?” Bucky asked. It was the most realistic cosplay he had ever seen, truly impressive.

“Ah no, the boys gave it to me,” the man said looking sheepish. Bucky figured he was just embarrassed, from what he knew about the cosplay community, which wasn’t much, normally it was more prestigious to make your own cosplay instead of buying it.

“What’s your name?’ Bucky asked, trying to show that he was interested in the guy behind the costume. The man kind of looked shocked by the question though, so Bucky worried he had broken some sort of cosplay etiquette or something. There weren’t any kids around, just the two of them so it wasn’t like he was ruining the secret for any kid.

“Um Steve Rogers,” The man said, like it should have been obvious.

“Oh, I was hoping to get your real name not your character,” Bucky said a little disappointed. It was ok if the guy wasn't into him, Bucky wasn't some creep to pursue someone who wasn't interested.

“That is my real name. Captain America is the character name.” The man said in a tone like he couldn’t tell if Bucky was joking.

Bucky stared at Captain America for like a good two minutes before he realized that he had been talking to the real Captain America this whole time. No wonder the cosplay looked so spot it, it was the real deal! He felt his face flush with embarrassment. He really did put his foot in his mouth anytime he opened it.

“Oh, you didn’t know,” Steve said, obviously pleased by this for some reason, not that it helped Bucky’s embarrassment. He definitely was not telling anyone back at work about this encounter, ever. He would never live it down. How could he, a Brooklyn native born and raised, not recognized Steve Rogers. His face was the most famous face in Brooklyn.

The elevator finally arrived to the lobby allowing Bucky to hid his embarrassment by trying to pull all his bins out of the elevator. Steve hovered until Bucky was all squared away.

“I have to go, but I hope I see you around Bucky,” Steve fucking Rogers said leaving Bucky standing there like a starstruck teenager.

Bucky couldn’t help but hope that Steve would be at the hospital when he arrived the next week. It was wishful thinking, Steve was a superhero even though he seemed like a really down to earth guy. He probably had better things to do than hang around the hospital. Bucky had to stop himself from asking any of the hospital staff if Steve was going to be there.

To his surprise half way through his program, he noticed someone in a lot of red,white, and blue trying to sneak into the back. Honestly someone wore that outfit, no matter how big they were was bound to be noticed, and Steve was a huge hunk of a man that was impossible to ignore. The kids went wild.

“Now, settle down friends. Why don’t we explain to Captain America what experiment we are doing and get him caught up,” Bucky said, making the executive decision that Steve would be joining them today. Hopefully Steve played along.

The kids were ecstatic to explain to Captain America the experiment they were doing to learn about DNA extraction. Steve for his part was super engaged with every child who tried getting his attention and asked all the right questions to keep the kids talking about their science project. Bucky didn’t think it was possible but he felt like his heart grew just watching how good Steve was with these kids.

When the demo was over Bucky started to pack up so he could make his rounds to the kids who weren’t able to leave their rooms to come to the demo. He half hoped Steve would stick around. To his delight Steve did. Right as he was ready to roll his pop up cart out of the room Steve addled up to his side.

“You making some rounds?’ Steve asked. When Bucky nodded an affirmative Steve smiled. “Mind if I join you?” He asked with that big dopey smile of his. And how could Bucky say no to that? Not that he wanted to say no, but if he had there was no way he would have been able to.

Seemed Steve’s charm worked on everyone. All the kids, even the normally sullen ones were eager to show off how smart they were to Captain America who acted dutifully impressed no matter how many kids explained to him what DNA was. Overall it was an adorableness overload. Bucky made sure to get pictures. The Science Center would eat them up. Although he would make sure to ask Steve’s permission before passing them along.

“You are an excellent helper. I need someone like you all the time,” Bucky said as they headed toward the lobby after they finished up with the last child, who was a real talker. All of the kids seemed extra chatty today which was honestly fine with Bucky. He was glad to see them so engaged with science even if it was just to impress their favorite superhero. 

“You are really good with the kids,” Steve said earnestly. It made Bucky blush.

“I could say the same thing about you,” Bucky said gently, knocking his shoulder into Steve playfully. The big goon just smiled and rubbed the back of his neck, face turning a little pink. It was a lovely color on him.

“So you planning on making this a regular thing?’ Bucky asked trying not to get his hopes up, but at the same time he really did enjoy spending time with the man.

“Well it is hard to fully commit to a schedule, because sometimes things come up,” Steve explained.

“Yes, because saving the world counts as ‘things’” Bucky said putting finger quotes around the word things. Steve graced him with a laugh.

“So anyway, I do plan on making this a regular thing as often as I can. I really like giving back to the community,” Steve said. Anyone else saying that would sound like a perfect PR statement, but Bucky could tell that Steve actually meant it.

“Then I guess I will see you around?” Bucky asked. He was pretty sure it was too soon to ask Captain America out on a date or if it was even appropriate. Actually scratch that Bucky knew it wasn’t appropriate, he was technically on the clock. He was flirting with a national treasure on science center time. He was so in trouble if anyone found out. Hopeful Steve wasn’t like offended and complained to the Science Center about him. Bucky didn’t think Steve was like that but you never know. Flirting while in uniform was a stupid thing to do.

Apparently Bucky’s internal panic must show on his face because Steve laughed. “I was actually hoping I might see outside of the hospital,” Steve said, sounding a little nervous which made Bucky’s ears perk up. “Like maybe we could get dinner sometime?” Bucky was absolutely charmed that Steve seemed to be nervous about asking him out. Bucky was just a barely making above minimum wage informal educator and Steve was a gosh darn superhero with the body of a roman statue. There was no reason for Steve to be nervous about asking anyone out, but he was. It was so endearing that Bucky just couldn’t stop himself from reaching out grasping Steve on the shoulder giving it a quick reassuring squeeze. It must have helped because Steve flashed him a smile.

“I can genuinely say that I would love to. Just to be clear from the start, will this be a date?” Bucky asked. He was pretty sure he was reading the signs right, but it was better to have good communication from the start. Steve looked so relieved.

“Yes, very much. I want to date you,” he blurted out like the over eager golden retriever that he was.

“Same. I would very much like to date you as well,” Bucky said moving closer to Steve so they were almost chest to chest. They stared at each for a few moments

“Grown ups are gross,” a small childish voice interrupted the moment, making Steve and Bucky jump apart. Bucky had forgotten that they were in the lobby of the hospital for a moment he was so wrapped up in Steve. It seemed like Steve had forgotten too based on his red face.

One of Bucky’s students was standing in front of them making that face kids made any time they caught their parents kissing.

“You’ll be just as gross when you’re older” Steve assured, putting on his Captain America face, but with just a hint of softness to it. The child looked doubtful but let his parents usher him away.

“I’d better get going, I’m technically working,” Bucky said even though leaving Steve was the last thing he wanted to do at this moment. They quickly exchanged numbers and stared at each other for a few moments, neither one wanting to be the first to leave. “Text me?” Bucky said grabbing his cart of supplies, he really did need to get back to work. Steve assured him he would text him to set up the date.

Bucky was just loading his cart in the work van when his phone buzzed. Already can’t stop thinking about going out with you. It was earnest, it was coming on strong, but it was so Steve. Bucky could not help the grin that was on his face the rest of the day and had to take the relentless teasing from his coworkers when he admitted he had a date, but it was totally worth it

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you all liked this! Let me know what you think (but please be gentle, I haven't written in a long time) 
> 
> I am thinking of doing a collection of meet cutes for Steve and Bucky, so you will be seeing more of me!


End file.
